A ‘Glorious’ kickoff

Host Paul Ramsey and Linda Yip at the reception kicking off A Week of Glorious Music. (Photo by Denise Gliwa, Special to The Denver Post)

Over 100 fans of the Denver-educated, Grammy-nominated Metropolitan Opera star Hao Jiang Tian gathered at Shaver-Ramsey Oriental Rugs in Cherry Creek North the other night to kickoff A Glorious Week of Music, which begins on Saturday when Tian and his wife, Martha Liao, fly in from New York to attend Anne and Johnny Hsu’s annual Chinese New Year party.

The Hsu party is the first in a week-long series of appearances that Tian will make in Denver and Boulder. The others include a performance of “From Mao to the Met,” a one-man show based on Tian’s autobiography, on Feb. 3 at Grusin Hall at CU-Boulder (the $12 tickets can be purchased by calling 303-492-8008); a free master class for CU-Boulder voice students on Feb. 4; and headlining the Nathan Yip Foundation benefit dinner Feb. 6 at the Cable Center in Denver. Tickets for the latter can be purchased by calling the foundation office, 303-817-8400.

PBS filmed a New York performance of “From Mao to the Met” and Rocky Mountain PBS (Channel 6) will broadcast it at 2:30 p.m. Jan. 31. Pledges for the support of Rocky Mountain PBS will be solicited during the broadcast; Okie Arnott, Sharon Scott, Anne Sneed, Mieko Nakamura Bailey and Andy Hart — all guests at the kickoff and fans of Tian — will be among the volunteers fielding phone calls at the station that afternoon.

The owners of Shaver-Ramsey, Paul Ramsey and Liz Elko, graciously opened the doors of their spacious Cherry Creek store for the kickoff reception planned by Jan Steinhauser, Denise Gliwa and Gayle Ray, all members of the Asian Performing Arts of Colorado board. APAC was founded by Tian’s wife, Martha Liao.

Doug Price, president of Rocky Mountain PBS, was there with his wife, Hazel Stevens-Price, and encouraged everyone to pledge big and pledge often because the top donors will be rewarded with an invitation to a Peking duck dinner, prepared by Martha Liao, on Feb. 5 at the home of John and Anna Sie. It should be “some dinner,” Price said, because the menu will be the same as the one Martha will prepare when she appears on the Martha Stewart Show Feb. 10.

The Sies attended the kickoff with their son-in-law, Tom Whitten, and were telling friends that they had just returned from New York where they finalized the menu with Martha and Tian.

Dan Sher, dean of the School of Music at the University of Colorado Boulder, and his wife, Boyce, were spreading the word about Tian’s Feb. 3 performance at CU Boulder’s Grusin Hall. It begins at 7:30 p.m. and the public is welcome. The public also is welcome to observe the following day’s master class; it begins at 10:30 a.m., also at Grusin Hall.

Board chair David Thomson, meanwhile, said the Nathan Yip Foundation’s 7th annual Chinese New Year Celebration, at the Cable Center, will feature Tian as the headline performer. Jan Steinhauser will be mistress of ceremonies.

Proceeds go to the Nathan Yip Foundation, founded in 2002 by Aurora residents Jimmy and Linda Yip after they lost their only son, Nathan, in an automobile accident. It has since raised over $1 million to foster Nathan’s love of learning by building schools in impoverished regions of China and Mexico. Learn more by visiting the foundation website: www.nathanyipfoundation.org.

Thomson also introduced George Schock, whose new Schock Gallery, 231 Milwaukee St., is donating a landscape print valued at $3,000 for the Yip Foundation’s live auction.

Jimmy Yip brought samples of his scrumptious rum cake, and told everyone that it now available for sale, with all proceeds benefiting the Nathan Yip Foundation.

Architect Curtis Fentress was there with his wife, and company CEO, Agatha Kessler, and was receiving congratulations for having received the American Institute of Architects’ highest award for public architecture, the Thomas Jefferson Award. Of the 300-plus awards that Fentress has received, he says that this one is the most exciting. He also will be inducted into the Colorado Tourism Hall of Fame on March 4, along with Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen and hospitality executive Walter Isenberg.

The reception closed with tenor Yang Bo and bass Wu Wei performing a duet from the opera, “The Pearl Fishers.” Both are students at the University of Colorado’s School of Music and are supported by Asian Performing Arts of Colorado, and Yang Bo recently traveled to Atlanta, where he won a first place at the National Opera Association’s 2010 competition.

Other guests included APAC board members Celeste Fleming, Lily Shen and Jennifer Heglin; Denver Lyric Opera Guild members Becky Gantner, Jackie Writz and Barbara and Kevin Hughes; Dr. Larry Chan, a kidney specialist from the American Transplant Foundation, who had met Martha Liao when they both were scientists at the Eleanor Roosevelt Institute in Denver; Susan Stiff; Gayle Novak, president of the Denver Center Alliance and donor of a dining certificate from The Broker restaurant for the Yip Foundation’s silent auction; and Jie Zheng, founder and past president of the Colorado chapter of the National Association of Asian American Professionals.
Also, Alan Forker, who said he happily did “extensive research” to select the champagne served at the kickoff; Marilyn and Lou Webb; Penny Eucker; Ruth Hart Segal; Kevin Gliwa; Karen Valliant; Kellee Hanssler; Gary Ray; and Sheldon Steinhauser.

Study after study has shown that when it comes to charitable fundraisers, Denver has more per capita than any comparably sized city in the nation. Joanne Davidson has been covering them for The Denver Post since 1985, coming here from her native California where she'd spent the previous seven years as San Francisco bureau chief for U.S. News & World Report magazine.